Lewis Hamilton: Racing Into Formula One History
The move to Ferrari of the UK’s Lewis Hamilton, an earth-shattering switch for Formula 1, has cemented his truly legendary status.
Sportswriters have always been overeager to label an athlete “a legend,” pinning an over-the-top descriptor onto someone who may have just had a brief success — the very definition of recency bias. A one-season 20-win pitcher or someone who once scored 69 goals in an NHL season? A legend. Appeared in three Grand Slam tennis finals in seven months? Definitely a legend. Called a trick play to help his team win a Super Bowl? Where do we place the statue?
(That is actually the case in Philadelphia, where a statue to Eagles coach Doug Pederson was erected after he coached them to their first Super Bowl victory, in 2018. He and the team parted ways three years later, but the statue remains.)
Great stuff, but these are hardly the true sports legends of our time such as Pele, Muhammad Ali, Vince Lombardi, Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky. Another chair may soon be pulled up to that very small table for the U.K.’s Formula 1 titan Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton, who at seven titles is tied with another legend, Michael Schumacher, for the most Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship titles, is embarking on another phase of his legendary career after making the switch from the Mercedes team to join Ferrari in a multimillion-dollar deal said to be the biggest in Formula 1 history.
Hamilton is the most dominant motorsports driver of his generation, winning four straight world titles in a row between 2017 and 2020. Since his first F1 win at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal while racing for McLaren through his latest victory at the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix with Mercedes, Hamilton has amassed an incredible 105 career Formula 1 wins, far outstripping the previous career record of 91 held by Schumacher.
His longevity in one of the world’s most dangerous sports is also legendary. In fact, the 17 years from Hamilton’s first win in 2007 to his latest in 2024 is the longest stretch between first and last wins in motorsport history. He won his first of seven Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championships in 2008, and his move to Ferrari has come with a clear assignment: to return Ferrari to the top of motorsports once again; the famed Italian team will be seeking its first world title since 2008, coincidentally a year after his first win.
Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton was born 40 years ago in Stevenage, England, the son of an Afro-Grenadian father and white British mother, and as a mixed-race child he was subjected to racist abuse. When Hamilton was just six years old, his father bought him a go-kart for Christmas and promised to support his racing career as long as he worked hard in school. His parents had separated when he was just two, and, after living with his mother until he was 12, he began living with his father, who sometimes worked up to four jobs while still attending his son’s races. Hamilton’s victories came early and often.
Hamilton is regarded as one of the most complete drivers on the grid and the best wet- weather driver in the sport, with an aggressive driving style and an innate ability to adapt quickly to variances in the car set-up and to changing track conditions.
As Hamilton settles in with his new team, it is this style and ability that Team Ferrari hopes will return the brand to the top of world motorsports and Formula 1 dominance. It has been a steep learning curve for Hamilton since arriving at the team’s Maranello headquarters at Via Enzo Ferrari 27 in late January 2025. At the Fiorano Circuit, within sight of the house from where the great Enzo Ferrari himself would watch his team at work, Hamilton met with the Ferrari engineers and technicians and began to learn the names and faces of the hundreds of his support team.
“PART OF ME HAS ALWAYS HELD ON TO THAT DREAM OF RACING IN RED. I COULDN’T BE HAPPIER TO REALIZE THAT DREAM TODAY.”
“There are some days that you know you’ll remember forever and today, my first as a Scuderia Ferrari HP driver, is one of those days,” said Hamilton, upon his arrival at the facility. “I’ve been lucky enough to have achieved things in my career I never thought possible, but part of me has always held on to that dream of racing in red. I couldn’t be happier to realize that dream today. I’m so excited to start this new era and to meet and work with a hugely talented and inspiring group of people. I’m dedicated to bringing everything I have to deliver for the team, the wider organization and the fans. Today, we start a new chapter in the history of this iconic team, and I can’t wait to see what story we will write together.”
Hamilton has won a joint-record seven Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship titles — tying him with Michael Schumacher — and he holds the records for the most wins, pole positions, and podium finishes, among others. | Photo Courtesy Of Ferrari
It is a rarity in world sports when true legends change colours. Whether it was Lombardi departing the Green Bay Packers for the Washington Redskins, Jordan retiring from the Chicago Bulls and then suddenly popping up as a Washington Wizard three years later, or Gretzky’s shocking 1988 trade from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings, which crushed Canada’s soul, the moves that legends make late in their careers have often been seismic in their impact.
The world will be watching as Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari begins another chapter in a truly legendary career.
